Meet The Team
Helena Pagano, CEO/Founder/Caretaker
Helena Schmitz has seventeen-plus years of environmental professional experience with degrees in Environmental Science and Environmental Toxicology amongst other professions. She has helped various groups –businesses, non-profits, Tribal organizations, and has worked with State and Federal organizations. This professional background will aid in beginning this nonprofit’s path forward, especially with her positive and creative attributes. Helena is inspired by her children and hopes to share our heritage with them.
Damon Howell, Board Chair
Damon has twenty years of experience in the government sector and has a Bachelor’s Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies and an Associate’s Degree in Aviation Management. Damon is skilled in negotiation, diplomacy, interagency cooperation, policy writing, communications, and leadership. While not a descendant of the AtuxÌ‚ (Attu), he is a champion of their cause. He has four daughters and he hopes to someday be able to bring them to AtuxÌ‚ and share with them the rich history and culture.
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Francisco Mercado, Board Member
As a child who grew up in the 80’s and 90’s in New York City, who will describe himself as a geek/nerd, a jock, and a lover of history. Cisco has seen the effects of poverty and racism can have on a community. Cisco has strived to work to improve the lives of children and people in communities of need. Cisco is the oldest of four with three sisters. Cisco has a Bachelors degree from Valparaiso University and Master’s degree in History and Political Science from the University of New Orleans. Currently, Cisco is a Program Coordinator for Camp Fire Alaska. Cisco has been living in Anchorage, Alaska for the past eleven years.
Leon Reval, Board Member
I received my Associate Degree in Audio and Video Production and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Marketing & Business Management from the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale in 1993. In 2001, I returned home to Dulce, NM. Here are a few of my significant achievements:
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Served as Legislative Council Member for the Jicarilla Apache Nation from 2002 - 2006
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Started service as Jicarilla Apache Nation Administration Public Relations Officer in 2008
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Served on the New Mexico "Indian Day" under the State Tribal Collaboration Act to present, inform, and lobby on tribal communal issues
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Selected to serve on the Tribal Economic Development Board in New Mexico
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Appointed member of the Apache Alliance Board to protect and reinforce Tribal Self Determination and Tribal Sovereignty
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Appointed as a key witness representing the Nation in the Multi-Tribal Redistricting Lawsuit in 2012
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Elected as Legislative Council Member for the Jicarilla Apache Nation from 2014 - 2018
Dr. Nancy Billica, Advisor
Nancy Billica is a political scientist who has been part of the teaching faculty at the University of Colorado Boulder since 1998. Her work focuses on public policy and US politics. In addition to her teaching, she has an extensive record working as a researcher, writer, and consultant with several public policy and nonprofit organizations related to environmental, human rights, and social policy issues. She developed some of her hands-on knowledge of politics through several years of work as a research assistant in the US Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee.
Nancy completed her PhD at Harvard University in 1997. Before that she earned a Master's degree at the University of Arizona in Tucson, and a BA at the University of California Berkeley. She considers herself a student of the world still learning and trying to figure things out.
Brian Conwell, Advisor
​Brian Keitaro Conwell grew up in Unalaska, Alaska. He earned a B.A. in History and Literature from Harvard University, and while there he wrote a senior thesis on the Attu Peace Memorial and the memory of Japanese imperialism during World War II. He currently lives in San Francisco, California and looks forward to attending law school in the coming fall. He was brought up in a multicultural half-Japanese, half-Irish American household and is excited to bring this background to Atux̂ Forever.
Stephanie Sterling, Employee
Stephanie has called Alaska home since 2022, initially moving to the Southeast, and recently relocating to Anchorage. An archaeologist for the past 10 years within private, academic, and federal sectors, she has been pursuing her graduate degree in Maritime/Underwater Archaeology. Working in intertidal environments has created opportunities for Stephanie to work closely with local coastal communities – advocating for, and amplifying the voices and needs of descendent communities of historic trauma. Notable research included updating the Digital Library on American Slavery by leading a team to analyze and transcribe North Carolina slave deeds from the 1800s. For her thesis she completed similar archival research while conducting archaeological investigation and mapping of rice plantation waterways to assess the impact of enslaved and freed African Americans on the Lower Cape Fear River maritime cultural landscape. Her passion, integrity and breadth of experience allows her to fill in gaps in research while acting as a liaison between stakeholders in pursuit of mutual understanding and cultural restorative action. Stephanie is grateful for this opportunity and excited to join the AtuxÌ‚ Forever team!
Dr. Melissa Chakars, Advisor
​Dr. Melissa Chakars is professor and chair of the Department of History at Saint Joseph’s University. She specializes in Eurasian history with a focus on the Mongolian and Siberian peoples of Russia. She has published widely on topics of empire, identity, gender, and media. Her most recent book, the edited volume, Buryat Intellectuals in Empire and Revolution (Routledge 2026), examines the lives of Buryat-Mongolian activists and intellectuals during the tumultuous years of the end of the Russian Empire, the revolutions and civil war, and the first decade of the USSR. Dr. Chakars has lived, studied, and worked abroad in the Russian cities of Ulan-Ude and Vladivostok, in Riga, the capital of Latvia, and in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. She is excited to join the AtuxÌ‚ Forever team!
